‘Goodbye digital camera!’
To confess, I’ve only used Apple and Samsung smartphones until now. G4 is the first LG smartphone I’ve used. G4 that I met at COEX exhibition hall in Seoul on 29th surprised me in many ways.
First, the leather cover caught my eyes. Leather was the controversial part before the release. It surely does have different feel to it compared with metal covers. More of delicateness than bling.
When actually touched, it was very soft. They are manufactured in the most elegant processing. It was similar feeling of touching leather bags or wallets. They have put micro coating process on the surface too prevent leaving fingerprints.
Vice president Jongsuh Choi of LG Electronics said about leather cover, “It shows the background of the user.” He meant that the product stresses ‘analog feel’. However, it is questionable if I were to sell the phone as used.
Cover can be separated. The battery and micro SD card is also separable as well. It seemed LG was trying to set apart from the smartphone trend of having all in one form. Executive director Jonghoon Kim of LG Electronics said they would continue on with the cover and develops it into some sort of fashion item. This means they will keep the leather and separable cover.
The highlight was the camera. Because I’m very interested in camera, I turned on the camera fast. Clicking the rear volume button twice started camera. The reaction speed was quick. After screening my face with the frontal camera with my hand squeezed, picture was taken. It is the ‘gesture shot’ that the LG proudly presents.
In the experience hall, there were various comparable experience sections to test out camera’s various features. The phones were labeled ‘other company’ but it was easy to tell it was Samsung Galaxy S6 and Apple iPhone 6.
Camera of aperture F1.8 sure did have clear resolution even in dark shooting environment. IPS quantum display displayed almost the same color spectrum as the actual eyes see. The most impressive part was ‘expert mode’.
It is a feature created to compete against DSLR cameras. Shutter speed, ISO reception, color/temperature adjustment can be done. When we took ‘long exposure shot’ with this feature, the model cars running in the dark became a line of lighting. It was totally different from other companies’ camera, which had separate lighting of cars.
With such features, I had to say, “Goodbye digital camera.”
Staff Reporter Kim, Yongjoo | kyj@etnews.com